Leicester Tigers were left empty-handed after an night of frantic action against Munster at Thomond Park in the European Cup.

And to add insult to injury, for a second consecutive season also Munster banked a try bonus point as they claimed four tries to Tigers’ one in a 33-10 victory.

It left Tigers needing to repay the Irish province in kind when the sides line up again at Welford Road on Sunday evening, if they are to give themselves the best chance possible of reaching the knockout phases.

Read More

It wasn’t quite a case of déjà vu after last year’s 38-0 drubbing. Tigers were considerably more competitive, especially in the second half, although the hosts had established a firm grip on the game by half-time when they led 23-3.

Tigers players and coaches had talked before the game about keeping the crowd out of the game and they were close to doing that as the midway point of the first half approached.

Tigers were very much in contest

After a breathless start, Munster had had the better of the game but led only by a penalty from fly-half Ian Keatley and Leicester were very much in the contest.

But Munster moved into a 10-0 lead in the 20 minute when hooker Rhys Marshall scored – though he went perilously close to knocking on before reclaiming the ball to touch down.

It was then that matters began to get away from Tigers as Munster were almost visibly lifted and the crowd found its collective voice.

A second Keatley penalty made it 13-0 before the Munster No.10 cleverly chipped over the flat-footed Leicester defence for the marauding Simon Zebo to score.

Trailing 20-0 after half-an-hour, it wasn’t quite game over for Tigers but there was a heck of a lot of work to be done against a buoyant home side.

Tigers could never break shackles

And Tigers never could quite break the shackles. They built pressure but too often turned the ball over, or Munster killed it – which they did under their own posts on 34 minutes leading to George Ford finally putting Tigers on the board. Unfortunately that was rapidly nullified by another Keatley penalty before the break.

If they were to get back in with a shout Tigers really needed to post the first score after the break.

Read More

An arm wrestle ensued at the start of the second half not helped by Tigers full-back Telusa Veainu having to leave the pitch after a clash of heads with Munster wing Andrew Conway, who also had to leave the action.

The home side went on to break that particular stalemate in the 55 minute when they worked the ball wide, where their skipper Peter O’Mahony scored in the corner, just about sealing the game at 28-3.

Tigers had their late chances

Tigers responded when Harry Thacker was driven over the line from five metres, Ford’s extras making it 28-10.

However, any notion among the travelling supporters of their side fashioning something from the game disappeared within minutes when Munster had their fourth try, and a bonus point, with flanker Chris Chloete scoring in near-carbon copy fashion to Thacker.

Tigers had late chances to claim a second try but came up short despite almost parking themselves on the Munster line for the final five minutes.

Again Munster conceded a raft of penalties as they defended to the last and Tigers really ought to have taken advantage of a series of line-outs – punctuated by a scrum – close to the home line.

Had they done that then they might have been able to gather some momentum to take into the return game. As it was, Munster won that particular skirmish, too, and won’t lack for confidence when they head to Leicester.